Injuries lead to fitness innovation

Friday

Kelly Engaldo’s quest for a good workout has taken her further than most, all the way to becoming part of the fitness industry.

Kelly Engaldo’s quest for a good workout has taken her further than most, all the way to becoming part of the fitness industry.

Her route to becoming the inventor and marketer of EZ Swimmer, an aquatic resistance-training tool, was marked by health problems.

“I had open-heart surgery at Mayo Clinic in 1976,” Engaldo said, “and I was sent home with only two restrictions: throw out the salt shaker and don’t get overtired. Back in those days, getting exercise really wasn’t part of the prescription.”

Inspired by her grandparents’ exercise habits, the then-14-year-old Engaldo wanted to build up her endurance and began a walking routine that she kept up until knee surgery forced her to take up swimming as a workout in 2003.

“I was swimming three days a week but I always wanted more resistance in the water and wall exercises can get really limiting,” she said. “Then, because of a neck injury, my right arm went numb and I had to have some kind of swim float.

“It was no longer a wish. It was either I was going to have to start walking again, which was not my favorite idea, or I could do something to get back in the pool. So, I began to put together a beautiful duct-taped version of a swim float — eventually, I graduated to blue duct tape — and then I sought out a manufacturer.”

Her search for a manufacturer began in 2005 and went through more than 60 candidates, including one in China, before she found Tarboro, N.C.-based Spongex LLC, which was able to manufacture her approximately 2-foot-long float from a closed-cell plastic foam originally developed by B.F. Goodrich as insulation for the U.S. space program.

“Local manufacturers produce plastics for the medical and automobile industries and didn’t produce soft foam,” Engaldo said. “Then I looked at China and they came back and said we’re 80 percent sure we can get the materials correct. I was like I’m 100 percent sure I can’t hand you the money until I see the material being correct.”

Engaldo said Spongex essentially gave her the mold at their cost and the plastics engineer she had hired was able to contact a biomedical engineer in Tennessee who finished the product design. Three prototypes later, the EZ Swimmer was in production by mid-2007.

Spongex manufactures the floats in North Carolina, but the screen printing that produces the finished product is done by CorPro Screentech in Rockford.

“Spongex does a wonderful job of production,” Engaldo said, “but I wanted the screen printing done locally and I wanted quality control over it.”

Engaldo uses the float, which creates resistance from the user’s own body weight, for her own workout and said she has sold a “handful to aquatic instructors and for market testing” as well putting a few on e-bay to get a feel for the market and correct pricing.

One of the floats sells for $75 alone or $99 with a gift set that includes an 18-page use guide and laminated poster illustrating three basic exercises.

One of her biggest sales was to Rockford's YMCA of the Rock River Valley, which will be the first place to use the float in a group exercise beginning Wednesday, Sept. 3.

“We bought 10, and I really think it’s going to totally reshape what a total body workout is in the pool,” said YMCA Aquafitness Instructor Diane Robinson, who will teach the class. “It’s going to put kickboards and Noodles (a long cylindrical float) back in the box.

“For instance, you can do crunches with a Noodle all day, but if you do just 20 crunches with this you are definitely going to feel it.”

Robinson said the classes with EZ Swimmer will be at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday at 200 Y. Blvd. on a first-come, first-served basis for 10 participants.

In addition to crunches, basic exercises on the EZ Swimmer include seated balance for the core, tricepes dips and push-ups that Robinson said will take participants some time to master.

Engaldo hopes the classes will succeed and lead to her objective for the EZ Swimmer’s future.

“I’d like it to change fitness,” she said. “I’d like to have fitness in the hotels. I’d like to see swim fitness become a family event and I want fitness to be seen as fun.

“Something like running is a great exercise, but it’s not really a family exercise whereas swimming and resistance training in the water you can do with all the family members because, since your body weight creates your resistance, it’s customized for each individual.”

Mike DeDoncker can be reached at (815) 987-1382 or mdedoncker@rrstar.com.

EZ Swimmer

What
A buoyant resistance-training tool for water workouts
Who
Created by Kelly Kline Engaldo
Sold by
AmericanSon Products Inc., Rockford
Price
$75 each or $99 with gift set of 18-page use guide and laminated poster illustrating three basic exercises
Call
877-439-7946
E-mail
kelly@americansonproducts.com